I have yet to see any real evidence that a hard-line on immigration is a political winner.
Tancredo.
The current hardline position is not. I wished people would look at the Dems that rans against these guys and their immigration position. There seems some propaganda that keeps circulating that Haysworth opponent copied him on immigration. That not true
Haysworth opponent was very tough. Wnated big border security and really wants to fine Employers. He also talked about guest worker and pathway for those that paid a fine, learned English, were not violent felons, and held a job. This was different from Hayworth. People like programs that are tough but rational.
As to these amendsments many of them got vast Hispanic support. THe problem is that many of these hispanics voted for the Dem because ven though they are against illegal immigration they think the Tancredo approach is too hardline. We never listened to them. We ask for their votes on pro life issues etc but to listen to thme on this was called hispandering. I cant think of anything more insulting. Why would many hispanics would vote for a party where so many people in the party use the term hispandering. I am not saying we got no hispanic vote. But I think overall it was a turnoff. Last year was nasty and often the rethoric was over the top. We can expect some collateral damage from this
Put that way the same could be said about abortion, or gun ownership, etc. Yet they are issues that positively influence elections, if the case is articulated properly.
Problem is few are willing to make the case, for whatever reason.
The GOP, as a whole, DID NOT EVEN PLAY hard line on immigration in the 06 election.
In fact, astonishingly, the Republicans played the illegal immigration issue in the WORST POSSIBLE way to gain any support.
First off, GWBush angered a substantial portion of the GOP base by concocting this hairbrained "amnesty for illegals", which is so against the rule of law that even Democrats opposed it.
And even though the Republican controlled House was able to stop Bush's hairbrained plan, the GOP FAILED to even fund the border fence until so close to the Nov. 7 election that it got lost in the haze of partisan fingerpointing and anger.
And THEN someone discovered that the border fence was not even properly funded, and thus could possibly be squashed by a future Congress, or maybe RIGHT AFTER THE ELECTION.
So, to sum it up, the GOP not only got NO EXTRA SUPPORT from the Republican OR conservative Democrat base, the fence issue likely angered many illegally voting Hispanics AND it also likely angered Hispanics who possibly could have been planning to vote GOP out of respect for President Bush.
It ended up being the WORST OF BOTH WORLDS for the Republicans, and they have only themselves to blame.
No wonder the base was demoralized.
I'm beginning to believe that some of our GOP defeats were engineered by the Bush-controlled RNC as a tactic to dampen opposition to the amnesty bill. IOW--we were sold out of our majority to pass an amnesty bill.
Think about how delighted Tony Snow was on the morning after the defeats of conservative GOP congressmen--I think he tipped the hand of the administration.
I think FR ought to review the articles and commentary surrounding the issue of immigration and 06 Congressional defeats.
I believe at least some of them were engineered by the Bush RNC.